Farrow & Ball paint names

With paint colours like Broccoli Brown, Mole’s Breath, and Salon Drab, one has to think about there should be a tortured soul behind the naming of Farrow & Ball’s array of paint colours. Nevertheless, Joa Studholme, Farrow & Ball’s coloration curator, is definitely simply having a little bit of enjoyable on the job. Domino talked to Studholme about how she comes up with the quirky coloration names, and unsurprisingly, every has its personal story to share.

“It’s radically low-tech,” Studholme stated concerning the naming course of. She’s been with the corporate for over 20 years. “There isn’t a precise science to it in any means. It comes just about straight out of my head.”

Studholme is each keenly conscious of the yearly coloration tendencies, in addition to what colours are most lovely in nature. Each few years she comes up with a group of 9 to 12 new colours, and pairs every with a reputation that units it aside from the gang of potential related shades.

“To me, naming a paint may be as necessary as the colour itself,” she stated.

For instance, one in every of Farrow & Ball’s most appreciated and laughed-at coloration names is Lifeless Salmon, which is rather more lovely than its title suggests.

“Lifeless Salmon has a horrible connotation, nevertheless it’s derived from an previous painter’s bill that the group discovered at a historic corridor in England,” Studholme advised Domino. “It’s from 1805. Salmon is the colour, and useless refers back to the matte paint end; it has nothing to do with the fish being useless, however put collectively, it’s amusing.”

Equally, Sulking Room Pink sounds as if it might be fairly the miserable shade. However it’s removed from that.

“In my head, I had it because the pink you’d discover on an previous kitchen dresser from the 1920s, however once I confirmed it to our head of inventive, she stated, ‘Oh, it’s a type of boudoir coloration,’” Studholme stated of Sulking Room Pink. “Nevertheless, ‘boudoir pink’ is certainly not a Farrow & Ball title, so we tossed it round for fairly a while, lastly wanting into why a boudoir was referred to as a boudoir. It’s from the French bouder, which means ‘to sulk.’”

And chances are high, you’ve been saying Stiffkey Blue unsuitable.

“I prefer to make names which can be tough to say or have an intrigue to them…as a result of it sticks in folks’s minds,” she advised Domino. “For instance, Stiffkey Blue: Everybody pronounces it ‘stiff key,’ nevertheless it’s truly ‘stew key.’ It’s titled after a seashore in Norfolk that I took my kids to once they had been little.”  

Try extra of Studholme’s insights over on Domino, and you may browse the multitude of colours she and her predecessors have provide you with for Farrow & Ball right here. Not solely will you get some critical inside decor inspiration, however you’ll additionally give your self a bit chuckle within the course of.